For centuries, there has been much speculation and accusation about who the great harlot, or "mystery, Babylon," is in Revelation 17. Because of verse 9, "Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits" (Revelation 17:9), the Reformers nearly universally agreed that this was a reference to the seven hills that Rome is built upon, and therefore was a reference to the Roman Catholic Church. Reformers later said that she was called "the mother of harlots" because she gave birth to so many other denominations that were likewise committing fornication with the spirit of the world, many of which were the churches spawned by the Reformation.

The reference to this system as "mystery, Babylon" was because this system was built in the spirit of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1, 4-9:

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. . .



And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."



But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.



And the Lord said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.



Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."



So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.



Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth (NKJV).

Reformers considered that this was the same thing that had happened to the institutional church. When the church was unified under Rome, it had tried to establish the kingdom of God by might and power, not by the Spirit, metaphorically presuming to reach heaven on human wisdom and power. So the Lord looked down upon what men had built and did the same thing He did to the first tower of Babel—He scattered the languages so that now there are thousands of different languages or denominations.

We also see here that the great power of unity can be used for evil when the motives for building are selfish ambition. Because the reference in Revelation 17 is to a "mother of harlots," there are obviously offspring of the "mystery, Babylon." If this application is correct, then the unity of evil is the profound arrogance that we can reach heaven, or the kingdom, by our own strength and wisdom, which is really motivated by seeking to make a name for ourselves, not to glorify the name of the Lord.

Certainly, the history of the church can appear like a long trail of unfinished towers of Babel—project after project that ambitious men thought would gather people together and keep them together so that they would not be scattered over the whole earth. Projects can only hold people together for so long; only Christ can truly unify people. As long as we continue to build on projects, even good ones such as missions, people will always end up ultimately scattered rather than unified.

Because of the teachings of the antichrist coming on a platform of a one world religion, or a one world government, many Christians do not want to have anything to do with any movement that seeks to unify churches. This can be a healthy resolve in many ways, but it can also cause us to miss being a part of the true church which the Scriptures also reveal will be in unity when the Lord returns. Those who are controlled by fear, rather than faith, will inevitably be deceived. The answer is to discern and give ourselves to being a part of the true church. He is coming back for a bride, not a harem. Therefore, the real issue is to determine the motive for the unity. Selfish ambition is not hard to discern.

The Lord said that He would build His church, and the true church is being built by the Lord, on a foundation that is Him. However, He is using men who compose His body to do the work. He uses men to lead, through such as the councils of apostles and elders He used in the first century. He also at times uses individuals, such as He did Stephen, Philip, and many others throughout history to release revival, spiritual breakthroughs, and advances. The real issue is whether something is being done by the Spirit of the Lord or men. This is the original foundation of true faith that was demonstrated by Abraham as stated in Hebrews 11:8-10:
 

Like Abraham, those who are on the true sojourn of faith often have to leave all that they knew behind, just as he had to leave Babylon himself. Then there will usually be a period of not really knowing where you are going, but you will know what you are looking for—that which is truly being built by God, not men. There must also be a time when we find the land that we are called to and settle in it. The true quest of faith will ultimately end in achieving the goal—even if we ourselves may not complete the building, we can claim it and possess it for future generations.

The Lord is also building His church out of "living stones," not physical stones. This does not mean that the Lord does not use physical buildings, but when the main focus is building buildings instead of people, then we have departed the course from that which God is building. For this reason, many of the organizations that we call churches are at best just piles of living stones that have not been built together into a dwelling place for God.

If our identity is not more with our church than with any other group or organization, including our natural families, then we have not yet been built together the way we are called to. However, it is a fellowship of the heart that is not of compulsion, but of those who live for the King, and daily seek to do His will.

It is true that a counterfeit church has been built, or is being built, but the way to not be seduced into it is to be a part of the true church whose Architect and Builder is God. More than just being a part of what God is doing, a basic source of true faith, is the pursuit of being a part of what God is building. In truth, the main thing that God is doing in the earth is building His church. If we are not vitally involved in this, we are missing a most basic element of the true faith. True faith is more than just having accurate doctrines—it is abiding in the Lord and being obedient to Him in all things. This does not negate our devotion to sound biblical truth, but true faith is an action verb. True faith is not static, but kinetic, moving, living, and always in pursuit of God and His purposes.

As I said in the beginning of this study, if we are not going to be deceived in these times, we need to spend much more time seeking to understand what Christ is doing than what the antichrist is doing. Likewise, I think we should spend much more time studying true Christianity rather than the counterfeits and the nature of the true church, than that which is not. If you don't want to succumb to the temptations of the Tree of Knowledge, then start eating of the Tree of Life. However, we do need to know where and what the Tree of Knowledge is so we do not eat from it, and we do need to understand the schemes of the devil.